turgite
noun · first attested 1844
A mineral that was unnamed twice: once for the species and once when X-rays showed it was a mixture.
A discredited mineral name for iridescent intergrowths of hematite with goethite or amorphous iron hydroxide.
59.7657°N 60.1965°E · Q155767
Record
- Relationship
- Named from the place
- Confidence
- ProbableThe conventional story is likely, with caveats.
- Attested
- 1844
- Part of speech
- noun
Explanations here are written for this atlas. Dictionary text is not copied; the sources are linked so the claim can be checked.
- Step 1
Krasnoturyinsk
- In English
turgite
Rudolph Hermann described turgite in 1844 from the Turyinsk copper mines near Bogoslovsk, now Krasnoturyinsk, in the northern Urals, and named it for the Turya river that runs past them. Thermal and X-ray work in the 1920s showed the material was a mixture of microcrystalline hematite with goethite, and the name was dropped as a species. Collectors still use it for the rainbow iridescent iron oxide crusts found in caves and iron mines.